Thread 24 Starmer -Casting the net wider

[DuncinToffee]

Previous thread
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5329855-thread-23-starmer-reflux-remedy?page=40&reply=144419737

Red legged honeycreeper for my tax. Hopefully the cats won't spot him.

Thanks for the new thread @DuncinToffee .cat tax to follow.

I hear Nige is on holiday.

Will Farage use the EU passport gates?

I hope that the EU deal brings growth, that that growth is used to fund maybe changes to the WFA, that it is used to fund other stuff that is targeted - and that is communicated loudly.

Because Farage will bring in unfunded tax cuts - and we know the effect of that. Will he need to remove the WFA again?
How will he fund stuff?

And I hope that the Conservatives find their backbone and attack Farage and find issues in his policies.

He is indeed on holiday.
anyone else think he didn’t want to have to defend Brexit?

Then again he’s made nine trips abroad since last July and attended 69 out of a possible 203 votes in Parliament.
So not exactly a committed Parliamentarian.
But given his record as an MEP you wouldn’t expect anything less.

Doesn't Parliament have enough recess time for him to go on holiday?

@cakeorwine Reading the ‘we hate labour thread’, not a chance they’ll do that if they represent the average Conservative. Honestly, I’m staggered at the level of delusion on there. I’m actually thinking that the refusal to accept anything good whatsoever in the various trade deals is just deliberate wilfulness. Pure and simple political game playing. Complete absence of pragmatism, sad really.

Thanks for new thread, cat tax paid ☺️

Leave 'em to it. Keeping up that sort of relentless negativity will take its toll.

Nah. The Tories are done. What is left of their reasoning vote is drifting to the Lib Dems and a bit Labour. Reform are going to mop up the rest.

Of course Farage didn’t turn up. Immigration is his ticket. He’s not stupid, this is his best argument, not a red tape cutting deal from the EU.

If the press really get told to go for Farage they will be all over his overseas trips, holidays and perceived cocktail lifestyle like a hot rash on a bum. They haven’t yet got the motivation

Brexit reset or Brexit betrayal?

Hehe very good

It's ironic saying something like that on this thread, this is a continuation of the original anti trump thread where it salivated over every alarmist headline and twitter (pre musk buyout) tweet if it confirmed the bias, I remember everyone falling over themselves over Covington kid, bubba wallace etc

The UK focused threads originated around the time of Boris, where some of the regulars would happily start threads based on headlines which started "Tories could" and could see echoes of the 1930's if you squint hard enough.

Being offended around wider criticism of labour, particularly in this thread, is not being as politically astute as you think you are.

I'm not shitting on these threads, some of them of been unintentionally funny with the retroactive thinking, but coming onto this thread and saying "refusal to accept anything good whatsoever" is hilarious

The original UK focused threads predated Johnson

Oh god I don’t care. Let’s not TAAT. I think there are some very sore Conservatives out there. They generally don’t come here, we don’t bug them in their threads, which they can have, can’t they? Debate is fine; I think it’s a bit off to chase them in their political chat threads

It's ironic saying something like that on this thread, this is a continuation of the original anti trump thread

No, that is not true. The Trump thread is entirely separate and about US issues.

Apart form righting that misapprehension, I agree with bombastix.

Incidentally I’d recommend this book to anyone is properly interested in how the game of international trade is played; it’s both true and funny. Dimtri is a proper trade negotiator and this is a credible book written by someone who actually trained UK negotiators for Brexit.

m.soundcloud.com/user-941630307/dmitry-grozoubinski-post-brexit-trade-policy

Inflation in UK jumped by more than expected last month to 3.5% after dramatic increases in water bills, energy costs and council tax.

Rise in employer NICS & boost to nat minimum wage also put pressure on companies to raise prices by more than forecast.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/may/21/uk-inflation-jumps-higher-than-expected-energy-bills

That doesn’t surprise me at all. Our council tax is now 10% of one of our occupational pensions and the water bill is almost £1000. And the “freezing pensioner” posters wonder why we’re not upset at losing our WFA, it’s the least of our worries.

Cue much frothing, the economy is collapsing etc. etc.

The increase in water bills and council tax is eye-watering, though.

Some handy figures in case anyone is interested.

Thanks for the new thread.

Cat tax submitted.
She may be dreaming of the 'good old days' but more likely dreaming of Reform's demise.

Labour have a lot to do domestically. It is their biggest problem. I don’t think they are credible on what they propose either.

My water bill is around the same. I am thinking we might need to switch to a meter as it is significantly cheaper.

Well, you'll be happy to note that Thames Water is paying its executives bonuses out of its emergency £3 billion loan.
When Thames Water was privatised it didn't have any debt.

If I’m going to criticise the government for anything it’s allowing Thames Water to continue to pay the bonuses that got it into this mess in the first place. Why on earth wasn’t it expressly stipulated that the loan was contingent on non payment of bonuses and dividends?

Apparently they needed to keep management on board - and that required bonuses of up to 50% of salary paid from the loan.

In one sense I can understand why they'd want to keep employees for consistency, on the other a lot of them were in place when Thames Water accumulated the debt.